Come on a run with me

It's really pretty here right now with all the fall colors. So I thought it would be fun to take some pics on my run today so you can see some of the nice scenery I saw. :)

A pic of Caylea's new haircut.

Brrr

Hey everyone! Here's a pic of me and Deblyn from my trip to Bloomington last weekend. My camera is doing funny stuff lately so it's a little grainy. It was a great trip catching up with friends I haven't seen in awhile. And met some really cool girls on Saturday night. Had a little blast from the past on Friday night when Missy, Laura, and I saw Sixteen Candles at Daddios. I don't remember the last time I heard "I think we're alone now." It was a lot of fun. I'm trying to squeeze in visits with everyone when I come up, so if I didn't get to see you I'll make sure to next time! It was much needed girl time. I've been enjoying the sweatshirts, fireplace, and hot chocolate lately. I'm really not ready for this cold weather though. I made some chili tonight, it was yummy.

Got my haircut on Saturday. I'm not real sure how I'm feeling about it yet so I'll post a picture later. He put three different colors in my hair. Really dark on the bottom layer, which I'm good with, lighter blond in the middle, which I'm good with. It's the "brown" on top that makes me cringe a little. It's just a little redish for me. So I'm giving it a day or two to see if it tones down at all. Otherwise I may be back in for him to add a little more dark. Maybe it's just a shock to see a different color after doing the same for so long.

So not a big post but just wanted to check in since it's been awhile. Hope everyone is staying warm. (I refuse to turn the heater on yet but I know I won't be able to hold out much longer)

Productive and lazy weekend

Gotta love it when the weekend was productive and lazy at the same time! So Friday I left work around 2 and went to Kohl's to look for something, I forgot what it was exactly....didn't find it but did find a pair of shoes I loved. Had to get them in black and brown.

My attempt at fall decorating. I'm loving the wreath.

Who knew Target had so many choices of fun vase fillers, like these cherries.

Got home from Target and running today around noon and found Caylea passed out cold. Went out and mowed, came back in and she's still crashed. I finally had to wake her up at 5!

This girl is growing up way too fast. She's starting to raid my closet. She's eyeing some of my shirts I don't even have the tags off of yet.

So Friday morning Magnus woke me up around 5am to go outside, he never does that. So he was having some issues. I didn't think anything about it really. Until I got home after work and found that he really needed to go out again at some time during the day. That was not what I had anticipated coming home to. And of course...out of carpet cleaner. A quick trip to the store and a bottle of Resolve pet stain remover and Hot Spot carpet cleaner did the trick. Those products are amazing.

So then I settled in and caught up on a few shows I had dvr'd, Grey's mainly. Saturday I got up, went and ran then came home and did some laundry. Proceeded to spend the entire rest of the day catching up on all my other dvr'd shows. Anybody watch FlashForward? I thought it was pretty good. Decided to order Crank 2 on demand. Yep, just as terrible as the first one. But I watch anything with Jason Statham in it. Finished the first season of True Blood from Netflix and the 5th season of Sex and the City. So basically I sat in front of the TV from 11am until midnight. It was great. I did manage to get all the laundry done in there as well. Tried to get Jazz into her new costume, she was having none of it. It's a banana and if I can get her to hold still long enough to get it on I'll take pictures.

Today went to Target this morning looking for a shoe rack. Stopped by the trail on my way home to get a quick run in. Felt good because I ran the whole time but felt like I was crawling. My right calf is constantly tight. I gotta get better at stretching. Came home and found Caylea crashed (see above) and went and mowed, and broke out the weedeater which I hadn't done in a few weeks. The yard looks so much better now and glad I just did it instead of procrastinating all week. Organized the tupperware cabinet, under the sink cabinet, put together a shoe rack (for the new shoes) and made Caylea's night by ordering pizza then sitting down to watch the dvr'd episodes of America's Next Top Model. I realized I have dvr'd a lot of shows!

Being taken for a run

So this weekend I became convinced that Jazzie has fleas. So after catching her up on her flea medicine I became a little obsessed making sure these nasty things weren't in my house. I spent more time with the vacuum this weekend than I would ever like to spend again. And I discovered the best way to get a forearm workout is to buy a canister of insanely expensive de-flea stuff (which smells like oranges in an overwhelming way) for the bedding and furniture. I covered pretty much everything I own in the stuff and I can barely move my forearm today.

When I wasn't doing piles of laundry I was being completely lazy and watching marathons of Sex and the City and True Blood.

I had taken 5 days off of running because I had worked late a few nights last week, was too darn tired from cleaning and in general just feeling lazy. I knew I needed to run today but really didn't want to. I came home from work and had a very large emotional breakdown (partly because I'm feeling sick) and then told myself I had to snap out of it. I looked at Jazz and thought "well I'll take her for a little jog and at least get a little run in" thinking this would be pretty leisurely and mostly walking.

Wrong. That dog ran me into the ground. She runs fast and so we took off. I wish I would've worn my watch because I am pretty sure I set a new record for myself. She ran for 3 miles. I haven't so much as taken this dog for a walk in weeks and she ran for 3 freaking miles. About halfway into it 2 little girls saw me and asked me if my puppy was nice. "Why yes she is nice, why don't we stop running and you can pet her." Thank goodness I could take a little break! Funny thing was later we were still running quite fast and I realized I wasn't dying and actually felt great. But I think Jazz and I were both glad when we made it to the front door. It was a nice little pick me up getting a good run in after losing it.

Tomorrow night I'm having dinner with my old boss and friend who are here for some training, can't wait to catch up with them! I've been really missing friends lately so it's nice to have some familiar faces around. I'm officially exhausted after having a very low low followed by a very high high tonight. So I'm off to crash in my flea free bed with my flea free dog.

5k pics

Some pics from the Jefferson City 5k, I'm #225

Notice how my foot looks like I'm landing on the very outside edge of my foot? I just noticed that, not sure if that's normal for me but doesn't look like it's a good thing to do. I'm doing it in both pictures, so my guess is it's a common thing for me. I'm doing it on the foot that gives me trouble with plantar fasciatis so maybe I'm trying not to cause myself pain, I don't know.

I don't know this happy guy but this picture gives you a decent view of that monster hill that we had to run up first....the one that about did me in. Nice downhill to the finish line though.

In front of the Capital building getting ready to start the run. My runs have been so much better now that the weather has cooled down a little bit.

28:47

Today I ran in a 5k in Jefferson City. My goal was to beat my previous time of 29:07, and I did, by 20 seconds. I was happy with that! I was pretty nervous because Jeff City is VERY hilly, but I was assured by a co-worker the course wasn't too bad. Started out in front of this pretty building.

Ran across the Missouri River bridge. The 5k was for the Jeff City Police Officer's Association, and I'm loving my new t-shirt.

And here are a few of my thoughts during this 5k.

1. Nervous because I had a week of bad running last week but the fast few days have been much better. Just want to beat my previous time.

2. Not too many people at this one compared to the Jay Dix run.

3. Weather is perfect! A little chilly.

4. See a few people dressed up like convicts.

5. Ready, set, go. Click start on my watch timer and take off downhill.

6. I started fairly close to the front so took off pretty fast. It is nice that it is a downhill start.

7. Not so nice that there is a what I would call a significant hill that comes pretty quick. It was significant for me because I took off so fast, trying to run up the hill at the same speed about killed me.

8. Thought to myself "Seriously you are 2 minutes into it and breathing ridiculously hard and legs are on fire." Start to pysch myself out and my shoulders tense up.

9. Whew, that hill is done and I made it. And now time to run down an on-ramp. Sweet!

10. Run across the Missouri River bridge. Wish I could enjoy the scenery a bit more but don't want to break my concentration now that I have my breathing under control.

11. Come up on the 1st mile marker thinking "geez surely I haven't gone a mile already. Yippee, I have!" And with that my shoulders relax again thankfully.

12. As I come up to the person at the mile marker think I hear him tell a few people in front of me "10:36" and I think to myself "are you freaking kidding me, I know my typical pace is a little less than 10 mins I can't believe I'm going slower."

13. Pass the person who tells me "8:51" and then I think "well hell that can't be right." Look at my watch which says "8:54" and totally get a new energy knowing I just ran my 1st mile in under 9 mins. Fist pump #1 and a "yes" said completely to myself.

14. Continue running along the bridge glad that cones are up and the cop cars are spread out here and there since the highway traffic is whipping by me.

15. Time to run up an on-ramp. Lucky for me this is Jeff City and the on ramps are pretty short ones. And then it's downhill for a bit, rock on.

16. Run around the Jeff City airport, see a cop car slowly driving by some of the runners and the cop on his loud speaker says "Hey Megan this isn't an all day event. Pick up the speed on the pavement." He speeds up and drives on just smiling and cracking himself up. I had to laugh.

17. Time to run back uphill, see the guy in front of me stop and walk and think to myself "don't you dare stop and walk Shyla" and then, yay, it's down the on ramp. The downhills SO make up for the uphills.

18. Pass the 2 mile marker and the person tells me "18:00" I can't believe I just ran two nine minute miles. Fist pump #2.

19. At this point I am tailgating a lady, I just can't pick up the speed to pass her and can't slow down enough to get off her tail. I wonder if I am annoying the hell out of her with my loud breathing.

20. Back up the on ramp and the end is in site. Run down that killer hill I started on. You know, the one that made me curse my decision to try another 5k. In my head I am blessing the people who created this route that we get to run down this nasty hill at the end and don't have to run uphill to finish on the incline where we started.

21. Finally pass the lady I've been tailgating.

22. Cross the finish line at 28:47. Beat my prior time by 20 seconds. Fist pump #3. I didn't maintain the 9 min mile pace and slowed down that last mile but I was ok with that, my goal was to beat 29:07 and be somewhere in the 28 minute range. Thought to myself "that wasn't so bad." Makes me want to sign up for another one.

My weekend

Friday night-cleaned while playing iPod really loudly. Love a clean house.
Saturday-worked, had a draining meeting, had a good talk with Caylea, laid on bed for 2 hours staring at the ceiling. Spent a few hours working on the below project. Caylea did some scrapbooking of her own and made some really cute pages.
Sunday-slept in till 9. Went for a run that wasn't so great. How can it be that hot at 10am? Running another 5k next weekend and hoping it goes better than the past few days of runs have felt. Was grateful when it started raining so I had an excuse not to mow. Thought about going to Wal-Mart but didn't. Thought about going to a movie but didn't. Watched Coyote Ugly. Finished the below project. I don't have many scrapbooks of Caylea during her younger years so I had fun putting this together. A very lazy Sunday was great.